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By Mark D. SomersonTHE COLUMBUS DISPATCH • Sunday May 5, 2013 8:00 AM

To most of us, these equations might as well be hieroglyphics.

Scientists speak a different language to present issues, argue points and convey information. B
efore many of these equations make it into a research journal or textbook, they are written in
marker, chalk or ink. They are scratched out, erased and rewritten until they speak a universal
truth backed by laws of mathematics or physics.

We wanted to know what it is like to speak this language, to get lost in an equation. So we
asked scientists from three Ohio universities to translate.

Daniel Phillips

physics professor, Ohio University

I like to calculate. Always have. Batting averages. Distances between cities. Interest earned.
It’s one reason I became a physicist. Like most 5-year-olds, I like to ask “Why?” Physicists ask
the same question but then try to answer the question with numbers.

That process involves a lot of equations. It’s not that we love equations for their own sake,
although I’m sure some of my students think I do. It’s that equations provide a rigorous way for us
to tease out the consequences of our understanding of nature. We can start with a statement such as
“light is a wave” and figure out what numbers you’ll see in a lab experiment if that’s true or if
(light) is something else, such as a particle.I sit down with pen and paper and start out with a
statement. Then I encode it as an equation and use algebra to work out how to rewrite that equation
as something else. Then I use more algebra to rewrite the next equation as something else, and so
on and so on, until eventually I have a prediction for an experiment.It’s really remarkable that
mathematics will let you make predictions about the world around us.But one really needs to
concentrate. If you get the math wrong, you’ll make the wrong prediction. And the calculations go
on for several (10, 20, sometimes more) pages.Sometimes though, you just know you’ve got it right
because everything falls into place at the end of the calculation. Things cancel out just the way
they should, or two different ways of calculating the same quantity give the same answer. In some
cases, the result is too beautiful not to be true.That makes all the pages of algebra
worthwhile.

Jay Newby

post-doctoral mathematics researcher, Ohio State University

I use a whiteboard to interact with someone — either students or colleagues.In this case,
(fellow post-doc researcher) Mike Schwemmer and I were solving a problem, and the whiteboard is a
many-layered record of the ideas that we were throwing back and forth.It is a difficult process
because we have to think about the physical problem we want to solve and how the math works. But
the two always go together — figuring out the math helps us to better understand the physics, and
that can be very exciting.That is why this whiteboard has a lot of doodles and drawings alongside
the equations. There are so many different colors because when one of us had an idea, we would just
pick up the closest marker and start talking.Sometimes the marker goes dry and you pick up a new
one, and it might not even be the same color.After a few days of this, the whiteboard starts to
look a little crazy.

Steven Izen

professor of mathematics, Case Western Reserve University

Written mathematics can be used to communicate or to help formulate and clarify ideas too
complex to work out in one’s head.We submit our papers electronically, and our presentations at
conferences and seminars are largely computer-prepared. But for work done on the fly, we write on
surfaces — paper, whiteboards or blackboards.Whiteboards and blackboards are ideal for interactive
communication. Recently, I have been to several talks during which the speaker had his or her
presentation displayed on a computer projector. But when questions were asked, the presenter used a
whiteboard to quickly express the mathematical idea.Whiteboards and blackboards can be used to tell
a story. Concepts can be developed in a sequential way, at a pace which the storyteller controls.
The audience can’t jump ahead, and in a properly designed classroom, the important parts of the
story can be highlighted and remain visible as the story progresses. Details can be easily
inserted.Personally, I prefer a whiteboard. When I teach in a classroom with a blackboard, I return
to my office covered with chalk dust. A common quip is that I suffer from white lung disease.

David Drabold

physics professor, Ohio University

Much of my work involves the solution of the Kohn-Sham equations, which accurately describe the
chemistry, chemical bonding, energetics and atomic structure of many advanced materials.When
coupled with Newton’s second law, these equations provide predictions for the dynamical behavior of
materials and molecules.The solutions are emergent — the solutions represent properties
characteristic of large collections of atoms, impossible to infer from the equations for a few
particles.Many of the important processes of nature are encoded in a deeply inscrutable way in
these equations. Conventional mathematical pondering is necessary but not sufficient here.These
equations cannot be solved in interesting cases by mortal hand; for this we need the help of
powerful computers. So the venerable act of pondering is transformed instead into an exploration
with a computer and sophisticated codes that reveal the equations to the machine.For our part, we
specify the problem and the background conditions we want to explore. Many discoveries are waiting
to be uncovered with this modern variant of pondering.

Harsh Mathur

physics professor, Case Western Reserve University

I seldom work alone at a blackboard. For solitary work, I prefer pen on paper accompanied by
espresso or black tea. White paper for preliminary scratch work, yellow paper for recording the
solutions that emerge.But on rare occasions, I use a blackboard for solitary work. It sometimes
just helps to see a problem written large on a blackboard. It helps overcome the physics equivalent
of writer’s block.And sometimes it is good to transcribe a hard-won solution from yellow paper to
blackboard, to understand the full ramifications — and to simply gloat.Blackboards are
indispensable for collaboration and communication. One person writes on the board at a time; the
others record the progress on notepads. Like mountaineers roped together, we are committed to
exploring a single route at a time from among the myriad alternatives that compete for our
attention. A typical project begins with simple questions. Once these questions have been given a
precise mathematical formulation, the fun begins.The big moment, of course, is when all the pieces
of the puzzle come together. Hundreds of pages of calculation will go into the production of a
paper that might occupy just four pages in
Physical Review Letters. There is no better medium for communication.One professor I knew
in graduate school had become so reliant on blackboards that even during casual conversations
outdoors he would write in the air as he spoke. To make matters worse, he would refer to his air
inscriptions, pointing to them as though they were visible for all to see.

John Beacom

Astronomy, physics professor, Ohio State University

How do you figure out something when you can’t see it? Or maybe it doesn’t even exist yet?How do
you communicate your understanding to others? Architects draw pictures of possible buildings.
Football coaches sketch diagrams of possible plays. Scientists do something similar using pictures,
equations and words.Much of what we work on in physics and astronomy is beyond the reach of our
senses and requires special instruments to observe. We can’t touch an atomic nucleus or visit a
distant galaxy. And understanding these things requires abstract and complicated ideas, such as
quantum mechanics and relativity.It gets worse — doing research means working on things we don’t
understand yet.To figure out new things, we talk about them. Invariably, someone starts sketching
things on a whiteboard or blackboard, a notepad or even a spare napkin. If we were trying to figure
out a Rubik’s Cube, we would be passing it around and fiddling with it, everyone trying different
things.Millions of years of evolution have made our brains very efficient at using information from
our senses. To activate those abilities, we need something we can see and touch, so we sketch and
write, with everyone looking on and commenting.msomerson@dispatch.com@MarkSomerson